Professor Michael Risch Quoted in Wall Street Journal Blog

Villanova University School of Law Professor Michael Risch was quoted in a Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog post about President Barack Obama’s plan to take executive action against so-called “patent trolls.” An intellectual property expert, Professor Risch has written extensively on the topic with his article, “Patent Troll Myths,” cited often.

On June 4, President Obama announced a series of executive actions and legislative recommendations designed to curb patent exploitation by patent assertion entities (PAEs). PAEs, also called “patent trolls,” are patent-owning companies that build a portfolio of patents with the intent of demanding license fees, rather than making products based on those patents.

In the post, “Experts Weigh In On President’s Plan,” Risch told the Wall Street Journal he doubted that unmasking PAEs would deter them from filing abusive lawsuits. “I’m trying to understand why we’re spending so much of our limited resources and time on an issue of questionable importance,” he said. “I don’t know of any study or actual evidence showing that behavior or patent quality, litigation volume or any important feature of the patent system would be different if we only knew the true identity of who was suing.”